“I think the best part of our trip was seeing our team make the most of an unpredictable ride.”

Victoria Robbins, Student

University at Buffalo

Upon arriving at Buffalo Niagara International Airport on
Saturday, Jan. 4, 13 students and two staff members participating
in UB’s alternative winter break received some bad news.
Their 6:30 a.m. flight to Chicago would not leave Buffalo until
10:30 a.m.

The delay wasn’t too surprising. After all, temperatures
nationwide plunged to record lows because a massive influx of
bone-chilling Arctic air called a “polar vortex” had
blanketed much of the country.

The group cleared airport security and passed time on their
smartphones, sleeping and talking about the volunteer work they
planned to do in Louisiana. Philip Chan, a junior environmental
engineering student from Brooklyn, remembers thinking the delay
wasn’t too bad. They’d be arriving in New Orleans,
where it was 60 degrees, later that night, he said to himself.

He was wrong. It got worse. Much worse.

The 13 students — one student flew directly from her home
in New York to New Orleans — arrived at Chicago O’Hare
International Airport to learn their connecting flight was delayed.
The airline delayed the flight two more times before cancelling it.
About half the students boarded another airplane bound for New
Orleans. They never left the runway; that flight, too, was
canceled.

“We were disappointed but at the same time we made the
best of the situation. The airline gave us vouchers for meals and a
hotel,” Chan wrote in an email.

The group reserved seats on a flight scheduled to leave early
Sunday. But with the weather getting worse — near constant
snow and a wind chill that made it feel like negative 11 degrees
— the flight was cancelled. A flight scheduled that night
also was cancelled.

It was more of the same Monday. Instead of spending the day in
the airport or a hotel, the students decided to see Chicago —
never mind that the wind chill made it feel like negative 33
degrees outside. They visited the Art Institute of Chicago, home to
Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” and other famous
works.

There were no flights the next day. Given the uncertainty of
reaching Louisiana, the group decided to do volunteer work in
Chicago. While searching online, they found Pacific Garden Mission,
a shelter about 50 minutes away by train.

“At this point, we weren’t sure if we’d ever
reach Louisiana. So we decided to do some community service in
Chicago. The students took it upon themselves to find the shelter,
make the necessary arrangements and turn what could’ve been a
frustrating situation into a meaningful learning experience. If
sustainability is about resilience in the face of challenges, then
our students are as sustainable as they come,” says Jim
Simon, UB sustainability engagement coordinator who organized and
co-led the trip with Liz Hladczuk, reservations coordinator in the
Division of Student Affairs. The trip was organized by the Center
for Student Leadership and Community Engagement as part of its
alternative winter break initiative.

On Wednesday, after their flight had been delayed or canceled
nine times, the group finally left for New Orleans. A whirlwind of
activities followed as the group crammed six days of volunteer work
into three days.

While in Louisianna students worked with the
Barataria--Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP) on
sustainability projects that help to preserve the coast of the
bayou. BTNEP works in coordination with Bayou Grace Community
Services, an organization that works to preserve the coast through
environmental advocacy and volunteer services.

The students visited Nicholls State University farm, where they
pulled weeds, cleaned planting pots and learned about the different
types of plants and vegetation on the bayou. The following day they
placed roughly 1,500 Christmas trees into wooden cribs. The cribs
are placed along the shore of the Intracoastal Waterway to prevent
erosion. They returned to Nicholls State on Friday, where they
continued to volunteer and learn about the effects of the BP oil
spill on the Gulf of Mexico.

Victoria Robbins, a psychology major from Niskayuna, said
Louisiana was an eye opening experience.

“I learned how important the wetlands are to the
livelihood of those who reside in close proximity to them,”
she says.

The group managed to see the French Quarter in New Orleans on
Saturday before flying out. But bad luck reared its head again; the
group missed its connecting flight to Buffalo and was forced to
spend an unexpected night in Charlotte, N.C. Unlike Chicago,
though, they caught the next plane home.

“I think the best part of our trip was seeing our team
make the most of an unpredictable ride,” Robbins says.